Five Lives, One Soul
by Lord22
Summary: Sosuke Aizen sought to be a god. Ichigo Kurosaki wanted to be a hero. Our choices decide what we become, and we live with what we are. Whether we like it or not. LIsten, and I will tell you a tale unlike any other.


**Prologue:**

You know, looking back it all makes perfect sense. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy goes to rescue girl, boy gets sealed inside the deepest dungeons of the Seretei for a series of events that were either not his fault, or entirely necassary for the continued existance of the space time continuem. Which is precisely zero percent of the battle, apparently.

But then I suppose you don't care much about that sort of thing, do you, King of Murderers, do you?

No, what you want is help with your little Bankai control issue. You want my knowledge, my experience. You want me to give you the raw data you need to kick puppies, or kill everyone who disagrees with you more efficently. Well it's going to cost you something.

What do I want? Well that's easy enough. I want to tell you a bit of a story, and I want you to listen to it.

Oh wow, you don't have time for such trivial persuits?

What an adorably naive conception of the world you have. I used to think like that too. But here's the thing, I've learned a lot off things since I became a Soul Reaper in full, a lot more than I learned during my life, and one of them is the ability to wipe memories. Even my own.

If you try anything, or make any attempt to force the information out of me, then I'll wipe my own mind clean of it before you can get within ten feet of me. So shut up and sit down.

It's really quite simple, King of Murderers. You can try to beat the information of me with a club, and learn nothing, or you can _listen_ and perhaps gain something far more valuable.

Now, where to begin.

I suppose that I should begin with the house. Well actually it was more of a clinic, but that isn't the important part. The important part is the boy that lived inside of it. His name was Ichigo Kurosaki, and he was reckless with orange hair, and didn't care in the slightest about societies expectations.

This wasn't so much because he didn't care about other people, per se, but rather because people usually expected him to be a delinquent when they first met him, because his constant frown and naturally orange hair ensured that he _looked_ like a delinquent, even if he wasn't.

You would think that in this day and age people would realize that appearances are _always _deceiving, but I digress.

The boy lived with his father, and two sisters in this clinic/house, his mother having died some seven years ago. And he was... well I can't exactly say happy. More like bored. See even though he wasn't a delinquent, he was the perfect material for one, impulsive, a tendency the reject authority, along with the unfortunate belief that he was invincible.

Quite frankly I think that his nature as a mostly law abiding citizen was motivated entirely by spite against a society that assumed him to be the opposite by default.

Which is hilariously ironic in more ways than one, now that I think of it.

Oh you already know all this from the reports. Wonderful. How nice for you. I'm sure your very proud of your wannabe gastapo agents. You'd probably tell them that they are destined to become the leaders of tommorrow, but what if there is no tommorrow for them? There certainly wasn't one today.

Still, I'm sure you don't have all day, so I'll skip to the interesting part.

One day Ichigo Kurosaki is walking down the street, bored as usual, when he get attacked by a murderous Hollow.

No that was not a redundant statement, Hollows are not mindless beasts, there is no such thing. The fact that you think so is proof of both your duel stupidity and ignorance. Beasts are by their very nature driven by instict, and the goal of all Hollows is to rise above their insticts, and no longer be bound in slavery to the laws of natural selection, even if they don't know it in so many words.

In case you don't know what natural selection is by, try reading _Origins_ _of Species_ by Charles Darwin. It's a book written by a scientist that has inspired good, evil, knowledge and ignorance, just like every other advancement in human history. By the way, a book is a collection of pages bound in leather to protect the manuscript within from damage, _because I'm guessing that you didn't know!_

Oh you don't like my tone. Well you'll have to forgive me if I'm not trembling at your _terrifying_ preasance, because it doesn't take a good actor to recognize a bad one, and you are _god awful_ at this. Now shut up, I'm telling the story, not you;

Anyway attacked by a Hollow, and he was almost killed, and in the end he was only saved by a black haired Soul Reaper named Rukia Kuchiki getting in front of the things final strike. Rukia get's badly wounded and offers Ichigo her power's so that he can save his family. And while they take a moment to tell eachother their names, the Hollow tries to eat them.

Sweet isn't it? By now you've probably realized that Ichigo Kurosaki isn't exactly bright in regards to common sense, or knowing when to shut the hell up and stab himself with a sword before everybody he cares about gets killed thanks to his own personal need to be the _big hero_. Still, despite his foolish hesitation, it works, and Rukia accidently gives Ichigo all of her powers. From that point on has to fill in for her, helping to kill the Hollow's that periodically try to eat the citizens of Karakura.

Hey, I said that Hollow's weren't mindless. I never said they weren't vicious bastards, trust me, I of all people should know that much.

Anyway, what followed was a series of loosely connected adventures in which Rukia Kuchiki and Ichigo Kurosaki gradually grew closer and closer, while inadvertantly causing the friends they made along the way to develop powers, with the exception of the ever enigmatic Uryu Ishida, who already had them.

Oh and there was Tatsuki, but she kind of fell through the cracks right about the point mountains started being leveled. I guess that constant self discipline and hard work is no match for a Bankai and the right bloodline.

And yes, I know that this all seems dreadfully irrelevant, but it's not. It really, really, isn't. Nothing could be more important, in fact. You see, why we do things but I'm trying to make a point here and your not making it any easier.

Now there came a day when Rukia's big brother Byakuya Kuchiki showed up to take her back to Soul Society. Oh and Renji Abarai was there to, but honestly who cares about pinapple head anyway. Rukia is about to go quietly, when suddenly _Ichigo Kurosaki_ arrives, overly large Zanpakto in hand and ready to save the day.

He doesn't. It isn't day for one thing, it's night, and more importantly he get's completely whipped in about two seconds by someone who doesn't give a damn about him, all for the sake of a girl who was willing to go with said person of her own free will in the first place.

Brilliant.

Either way, while Ichigo is bleeding out in the rain, Kisuke Urahara shows up to heal him, and offers him a chance to make up for his 'failures' even if they were really completely out of his control.

This pretty much sets the stage for several lives worth of fire, fury, and overly long speeches, that more or less signifies nothing. That was a referance to Macbeth, by the way. Look it up, assuming you know how.

Ichigo accepts, of course. Because he's sucidally overconfident, and subconciously has a bit of a Death wish at this point. He gets together with all his friends {except Arisawa Tatsuki, of course, that would be daft.} And rushes off to Soul Society with his comrades to have many adventures, learn the true meaning of friendship, become a true hero, blah blah blah.

Unfortunately for you, this is not his story. This is mine.

This is not the story of a spiky haired hero who saves the girl with his Nakama to aid him the whole way, this is the story of an overconfident little idiot who friends never made it through the Dongai precipice world. A wannbe hero who was cast down into the wildernness of Soul Society with nothing to show for his efforts in the it end but broken arm and a dying cat.

Did that go how you thought it was going to go?

...

**Authors Note:**

Well here I am with a new Bleach Story. As you can no doubt tell already, this is a non standard story in format. I can't tell you the concept without ruining it for you, but I think this is going to be a good one.

I can tell you this much. Both the Narrator, and the person he is speaking to are very similar, and yet fundementally differant.

Please review, it means a lot to me.


End file.
